Tuesday, February 14, 2012

In January, we got to work on Emma’s room makeover (her requested birthday present). It’s only taking 3 times as long as we thought it would. Here are Ryan and Emma building her hanging bed. Stay tuned for “After” pictures.

We got a good snowstorm. This winter has been my favorite Spokane winter ever. Sunshine, mild temperatures, running outside all winter long and 2 big snowstorms that were enjoyed thoroughly and then melted away within the week. Here are the kids playing in it. Yes, I know Seth’s coat is ridiculous.

Faith is 3. I forgot that 3 is THE COMPLETE WORST AGE EVER. I’ve had 5 kids and I promise, 3 is waaaay worse than 2. We have been having LOTS of this:

But then also some of this: (Just so we don’t give up on her before she turns the SUPER FUN age of 4)

(insisting she needs a sleep mask at naptime)

(spending the morning as a pirate and telling us to “go walk off da plank!” It was pretty cute.)

We also spent the last week of January we fun visitors:

Ryan’s parents came and stayed and we had the best time with them!

To kick off New Years (and as evidence of the aforementioned mild winter), we took a hike:

(Gabe is starting to only want to hang out with his friends and it’s very sad. We let him out of this family outing. Boo.)

Faith finding a stick that looked like an F:

My favorite person:

Where’s Seth? Look hard…he’s super camouflaged:

One afternoon, Gabe was practicing trombone ( ahh! the sweet, sweet sound of sick elephants trumpeting in your living room), and I noticed another tooting sound. I went to investigate and found this: Faith tooting in rhythm, in all seriousness. It cracked me up.

And no year in Blogland is complete without some Crazy Hair Day pictures:

Thursday, February 9, 2012

(By the way, that’s the most comments I’ve gotten in a year, from that last post. I’m glad you all feel so vindicated/inspired by my crazy. And, yes, if you’re not watching Downton Abbey, go get Season #1 from Netflix and start the happy.)

Okay, so this one is an actual VEHICLE breakdown, not a mental parental breakdown.

We were heading out to Ryan’s uncle’s cabin for an overnighter with Ryan’s parents. Ryan started out by NOT taking the bumpy road shortcut (we differ greatly on necessity of using this AWESOME shortcut) and so we got separated. I had Gabe, Seth and Faith in my van and we were happily cruising the 50 minute drive to the lake cabin in Idaho.

We only visit this cabin once a year and so I needed my handy Google Map GPS on my phone to get me there. We were approximately 5 miles from our destination and I made the turn onto a road, as directed by my phone. As I drove down the road, I ended in a driveway and realized I’d taken a wrong turn. I went to turn around and started slipping on the packed, icy snow. I got a little worried because my tires aren’t great but just figured we’d inch out of there and be on our way.

There wasn’t a lot of inching, just a lot of tired spinning.

I decided to reverse out of the driveway, considering that reverse generally has more power for getting out of these situations. I put the car in reverse and at the last second decided to check behind me to see where I was going.

Where I was going was over the edge of a steep hill. Seriously. My tire was literally on the edge of a 45 degree inclined hill into 195 trees. With 3 kids in the car. In the pitch black. In 6 inches of snow.

(This is a picture from the area where I was. Picture this with snow and at nighttime. And my van’s not quite this nice.)

Yikes. This is one of those times where in my head, for a few seconds, I think “Where is the adult that is going to get me out of this?!” And then I realize that I’m the only adult around. It’s kind of a bummer. (Do you ever do that?)

So, I tried to go forward one more time and immediately one of my tires went ACTUALLY OVER THE EDGE of the hill and so then I was really freaking out. Luckily, we were 50 yards from a house and so my kids and I said a little prayer that the homeowner would be there and nice and I headed up to knock on this random stranger’s door in the middle of a mountain.

She was 85 years old and so nice (actually remarking later that she was happy for the adventure on a boring Friday night). The kids watched Disney channel, I got a hold of Ryan, she got a hold of her neighbor who has a CAT and agreed to come drag us out.

The neighbor showed up, a little tipsy (but he was Russian and, due to his mission experience, Ryan enjoys drunk Russians) and he hooked up our van to his tow thingie and yanked us out. Ryan insisted on paying him and then realized that I had no checks and had only $8 in my wallet and so it was super embarrassing to insist on paying someone a measly $8 but whatever.

And then we drove the rest of the way to the Romney’s cabin and had a wonderful night.

And that’s the end of my other crazy story from last week. (But isn’t that so lucky we didn’t slide over the edge of a steep hill covered with trees?!)

Monday, February 6, 2012

It was a pretty normal day (last Thursday), though I had been feeling A LOT of pressure over the last few days at the amount of stuff I had (always have) to do. I didn’t wake up super grouchy or stressed or anything.

And then, Gabe was caught for the 3rd time in 24 hours sneaking TV and lying about it and so I had to come up with a consequence that would fit the crime but I knew it would SO bum him out and who wants to be that mean of a mom? I don’t. Yuck.

And then Jane flipped out (doing her awesome yell-cry) when I told her that she was going to miss the bus because she was playing with Faith and she still had tons to do and I had to listen to my 9.5 year old yell and cry and yell and cry. Grrr.

And then Seth ran out the door, late-ish also for the bus and left me with a half-unloaded dishwasher to do. Awesome.

And then Faith began throwing ANOTHER huge tantrum (she was barfing and scratching her face with her nails) and was refusing to get in the car and all of a sudden I realized that if she didn’t get in the car that instant that it would throw off my WHOLE plan for the day because I had to get to Costco and the library and back by 11:00 in order to get nachos for Ryan’s Valentines Day #2 lunch and I couldn’t be back later than 11:15, because Ryan had a meeting at noon. And Faith was screaming and destroying her room (and her face) and the kitchen was a disaster area and I couldn’t find all of the library books and it was impossible for me to do my life and I LOST IT.

I LOST IT. I thought through my day quickly and realized that whatever had to happen that day would have to wait. I wasn’t sending emails or doing Valentines or making dinner or taking people to swimming or putting away the milk. I was quitting for the day.

I sent Ryan this text: (jabbing the screen as hard as I could)

I’m done. Done. I hate this crappy crappy job and I am done and you are going to have to find someone else to do it, because I’m done.

And then I turned off my phone, unplugged the landline, locked my door, shut my blinds and turned on the second season of Downton Abbey.

Ryan came home early for lunch and did who knows what. I assume Faith was fed and put to bed because I wasn’t present. I read and watched TV and took walks and went to the mall and the library and read and watched TV some more.

After Faith woke up, she came in to see me and asked me to do something for her and I said “No. I’m not the Mom today.” And she said “Well, ‘den’ who are you?” and I said “Just Jessica"."

About 20 minutes later, she was milling around and said “Hey Mo---no, I mean, Jessica. I love you, Jessica. I almost said Mom, but you are not Mom, ‘wight’, Jessica?” And I said “Right”.

Emma and Gabe thought it was the best day ever. They made cookies and did no practicing or jobs. When it got time for dinner, Emma organized it and Gabe called around and found a ride to swimming and they took care of Faith. Jane was a little disturbed and Mr La-La Land (Seth) didn’t know anything was different.

Jane left me a note under my door at about 8:00: “I’m sorry you had a bad day. I hope you will be my Mom tomorrow. I like when you’re my mom.”

And so I was. And it was good. That “Day Off” was kind of what I needed to remind me that everything isn’t Immediately Necessary. I needed a day where I just got to think about me. I was rejuvenated and ready to love them and take care of them again.

Quick Quote

Seth lost his shoes and had to wear Faith's too-small pair to a soccer game. He was pretty miserable. After the game, Ryan asked what he'd learned from it. Seth replied: "To have a happy attitude when things are hard?"